Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 25
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham has criticized a recent court ruling against, Mozaffar Khazaee an Iranian-American engineer, who was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for trying to send sensitive US military documents to Iran.
Afkham said that the ruling is completely unfair, Iran's ISNA news agency reported Oct. 25.
"Arrest and imprisonment of the Iranian nationals by the US government on baseless and unfounded reasons is unacceptable," Afkham noted.
The US prosecutors say Khazaee, who had worked as an employee of US defense contractors, stole and shared with Iran information on US military jet engine programs over the span of several years.
Khazaee, has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.
In November 2013, the US customs inspectors found sensitive technical manuals and other documents in a shipment to Iran that Khazaee described as household goods, prosecutors said. In January 2014, he was arrested at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport.
Follow the author on Twitter: @UmidNiayesh